It was a couple of
weeks ago during that beautiful day of the Blue-White game and I was taking
goofy videos of tailgaters consuming the sunshine and other things. The mood
was festive.

One of the young
adults who I featured in a video asked me with enthusiasm how I felt about
James Franklin. He was on a recruiting roll. I said levelly that I would've
chosen deposed Tennessee Titans coach Mike Munchak instead but we'll see how it
goes. The guy contorted his face as if I'd just offered him a bowl of Brussels
sprouts. "Are you kidding?" he said. "Look at what Franklin's doing."

I responded that I
wouldn't have been comfortable taking the risk of hiring Franklin, that I
thought it could possibly be trouble for Penn State down the line. The kid
smiled mischievously and said, "Yeah, I know. But I don't care."

And maybe I'm
wrong, but that seems to be the prevailing sentiment about Franklin among
smitten Penn State fans weary of its old bland brand. They want a little spice
in their diet even at the risk of side effects.

The unknown risks
reside in Nashville where four onetime Vanderbilt roster members Franklin
recruited are accused of raping a VU coed. Their trial is set for August.

In January, when
Franklin was hired rather than finalist Munchak and contender Al Golden of
Miami, I said that I would not have been able to get much rest were I PSU
athletic director Dave Joyner or outgoing president Rod Erickson having made
that choice.

"This whole process
of vetting was maybe the most thorough vetting process of any search, perhaps
of any position at this university. We utilized multiple independent
third-party sources. We used people and contacts that knew James closely
including officials and administrators from Vanderbilt."

Joyner mentioned a
glowing endorsement of longtime Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow who
worked with Franklin there and now is at North Carolina State. He mentioned
that the PSU search committee "asked hard questions and got honest and true
answers."

Joyner concluded:
"My belief is that James Franklin is a man of extremely high character. ... I
couldn't be more confident in the character of this man sitting to my left."

That's fine. The
problem is, you cannot possibly vet what will emerge from a trial or its
run-up. Documents can be released during the progress of the case. Those
accused can flip and testify for the prosecution. Any number of unanticipated
twists and turns can occur that expose information previously unavailable.

One such surprise
occurred on Tuesday when The Tennesseean
of Nashville obtained documents containing unflattering comments from the
alleged victim in the Vanderbilt rape case regarding Franklin. She stated that the
coach contacted her four days after the alleged rape to express sympathy
because she had helped him with recruiting. The documents also say that she
stated that, at some point, that Franklin asked her to round up 15 pretty girls
to help in recruiting, that he knew it was against the rules but everyone in
the SEC did it.

Franklin and Penn
State released a statement on Tuesday night denying any wrongdoing but refusing
further comment in deference to the ongoing case.

That's not going to
be good enough. Franklin needs to address these comments.

And it really has
nothing to do with Penn State's reputation in light of the Sandusky scandal. It
has to do with trust in Franklin himself, that he's the right guy for a
university that, way before Sandusky happened, purported to be about "Success
With Honor" in capital letters.

The Vanderbilt rape
trial should be about the alleged victim, not any brand reputation, either
Franklin's or Penn State's. But they are unavoidably intertwined at this point.
When the coach is accused by the victim of trying to recruit "hostesses," no
matter whether that's an unspoken SEC tradition, that's sort of a problem in
the context of a rape case.

This is only one
grenade exploding in the vicinity of Dave Joyner's hire. There could be others
during the course of this summer. And no one can anticipate when they will
detonate. That was my problem with hiring Franklin in the first place.

But most of the
Nittany Nation seems to be onboard with the hire. And that's fine, as long
as you're willing to dodge the shrapnel. Hey, he's recruiting like a madman,
right? He's a dynamic guy full of energy.

Personally, if I
were the Penn State hierarchy, at this point, I'd be happy with a few years of
boring football, a couple of 7-win seasons and no trouble. But it's not my
call.

Maybe that can
still happen. Maybe any questions about Franklin presented during the rape case
and subsequent trial will be suitably answered. Maybe we can then move on to a
novel idea — football.

"It couldn't have
been a more thorough interview process. We discussed everything. It was the
most challenging thing that I've ever been through, personally, as a father of
two daughters, and professionally.

"I think what came
out through all this, through their background checks and all the information
that they got, is that we were honest, we were up-front, we made decisions
quickly and tried to do everything we possibly could to respect the situation
with the utmost class."

I'm really hopeful
that turns out to be the case. I think I'd enjoy spending an autumn simply
covering some games.